EDN - European Documentary Network has announced that The EDN Award 2010 is presented to IRDFA - Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association. IRDFA receives the award for their outstanding contribution to the documentary culture.

EDN has chosen to honour IRDFA with the EDN Award 2010 to recognise the impressive work the organisation has done since it was founded in 1996. IRDFA has established a strong national organisation to unite the Iranian documentary sector and made sure that the documentary film as a genre and an art form has been recognised by public film and funding bodies. IRDFA has also worked strongly to help Iranian documentary filmmakers and their films to travel around the world as well as making documentary makers from around the world travel to Iran.

Upon presenting The EDN Award to IRDFA EDN Network Manager Hanne Skjødt said:

The EDN Award was initiated to honour outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture. However, we have chosen to expand the geographical focus of our award a bit. We want to honour an organisation outside Europe that has done a remarkable job in uniting, structuring and promoting their national documentary sector. Considering their outstanding contribution to the development of the documentary culture the Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association was an obvious choice for the EDN Award 2010.

The EDN Award 2010 was presented on Friday, March 19 and was accepted by Documentary Filmmaker Mahboubeh Honarian on behalf of the whole IRDFA organisation. The award ceremony was held during the EDN workshop Docs in Thessaloniki. The workshop is held in the framework of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century.

About IRDFA

The Iranian Documentary Filmmakers Association (IRDFA) is the first directors' guild in Iran to focus on documentary filmmakers.  It was   founded in January 1998 within the Iranian "House of Cinema" establishment and alongside other cinema guilds. 

The IRDFA is an independent and non-governmental organization whose main goal has always been centered on regulating the behavior of governmental organizations with regards to investment in and distribution of Iranian documentary films.  Relying on the ability and knowledge of active documentary filmmakers, the IRDFA pursues the following goals:

guild support for independent documentary filmmakers

providing motivation and solutions to deal with problems in the profession

creating an atmosphere for communication between documentary filmmakers and other cinema guilds. 

The IRDFA has around 300 members in the field of directing and   producing/directing of documentary films. It is a center where films are screened and documentary filmmakers can undergo training in Iran, and also an important organization in terms of making cultural and artistic contacts with other centers in the world.

http://www.irandocfilm.org/

About The EDN Award

The EDN Award is presented annually during Docs in Thessaloniki to an institution, group or private person for outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture. Previous years the award has been presented to:

2005 - YLE Documentary: The documentary department of YLE, the national public service broadcaster in Finland.

2006 - The Jan Vrijman Fund: Dutch film fund supporting filmmakers and festivals in developing countries.

2007 - Svetlana and Zoran Popovic: For initiating and running Magnificent 7 in Belgrade, Serbia

2008 - IDF - Institute of Documentary Film: Prague based institute promoting documentary films from East- and Central Europe

2009 - Nenad Puhovski and Zagreb Dox: For initiating Zagreb Dox in Croatia.

About EDN - European Documentary Network

EDN is a member-based organisation for professionals working with documentary film and television. The organization has over 1000 members from more than 60 countries. EDN stimulates networks and knowledge within the documentary sector. More about EDN - http://www.edn.dk/edn/more-about-edn

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Note to Editors

Pictures from The EDN Award ceremony together with a PDF and Word file of this press release can be downloaded here - http://www.edn.dk/edn/press/

Related links

Docs in Thessaloniki 

http://www.edn.dk/activities/edn-activity-texts/docs-in-thessaloniki-2010/

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century.

http://tdf.filmfestival.gr/

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European Documentary Network

Stimulating networks and knowledge within the documentary sector